Linde
LIN on Nasdaq. Linde sells industrial gases and gas equipment to manufacturers, healthcare, and energy companies. Market value $222.4bn.
Price checks use the past 12 months to June 2026. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to December 2025.
Should I look at this?
Good business, but not cheap right now
Why it could be worth it
What to watch out for
See cheaper Materials stocks on the list
This is not advice. Check the numbers below.
For every $100 of what the whole company costs, it produced $2.24 of spare cash in the past 12 months. A savings account pays about $4.
You pay 26.2 years of operating profit for the business. The average large US company costs around 18.
Each dollar kept in the business earns 12 cents a year. Above 10 is good.
Quality score: 93 of 100. Price score: 37 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.
$482.38 a share, 24% above its 1-year low
Over the past year the price has ranged from $387.78 to $548.20.
Dividend: 1.3% a year
Paid every year for at least 5 years
Prices from Monday’s close (5 October).
Five years of cash, in billions
| Revenue | |||||
| Revenue | $30.8bn | $33.4bn | $32.9bn | $33.0bn | $34.0bn |
| Operating margin | |||||
| Operating margin | 16.2% | 16.1% | 24.4% | 26.2% | 26.3% |
| Debt to equity | |||||
| Debt to equity | 0.32 | 0.45 | 0.49 | 0.57 | 0.71 |
| Shares outstanding | |||||
| Shares outstanding | 0.49bn | 0.48bn | 0.48bn | 0.47bn | 0.46bn |
Health checks
- Free cash flow positive5 of 5 years
- Accounting looks honest (Beneish)Nothing unusual
- Financial strength (Piotroski)5 of 8 checks we could run
- Profit backed by cash (accruals)Yes
- Debt0.71× equity
- Revenue growth, five yearsSlow, 4.5% a year
- Buying back its own sharesYes, 7% fewer since 2021
The quarter to June 2026
How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
- Sales: $9.3 billion last quarter, up 9% on a year ago.
- Profit: $1.9 billion, up 9% on a year ago.
- It keeps 26 cents of each $1 of sales as operating profit, down from 27 cents a year earlier.
- Spare cash over the past 12 months: $5 billion, down from $5.1 billion.
- 2% fewer shares than a year ago. Each share owns a bit more of the company.
- Debt is $23.1 billion more than cash, up from $21.1 billion a year ago.
- Sales grew on a year ago in each of the last 4 quarters.
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| September 2024 | $8.4bn |
| December 2024 | $8.3bn |
| March 2025 | $8.1bn |
| June 2025 | $8.5bn |
| September 2025 | $8.6bn |
| December 2025 | $8.8bn |
| March 2026 | $8.8bn |
| June 2026 | $9.3bn |
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| September 2024 | $1.6bn |
| December 2024 | $1.7bn |
| March 2025 | $1.7bn |
| June 2025 | $1.8bn |
| September 2025 | $1.9bn |
| December 2025 | $1.5bn |
| March 2026 | $1.9bn |
| June 2026 | $1.9bn |
From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.
Dates
- Next results (estimated)
- 29 October 2026
- Last annual report (10-K)
- 25 February 2026
- Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
- 30 October 2026
Who owns it
12 long-term investors we follow own it, up from 10 last quarter. 2,338 funds in all.
- Dodge & CoxDodge & Cox investment committee
- Value
- $688m
- Share of fund
- 0.4%
- Weitz Investment ManagementWally Weitz
- Value
- $4m
- Share of fund
- 0.3%
- Horizon KineticsMurray Stahl
- Value
- $726,516
- Share of fund
- <0.1%
- Jensen Investment ManagementEric Schoenstein
- Value
- $669,433
- Share of fund
- <0.1%
| Fund | Value | Share of that fund | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dodge & CoxDodge & Cox investment committee | $688m | 0.4% | |
| First Manhattan Co.First Manhattan partners | $352m | 0.9% | Cut |
| Egerton CapitalJohn Armitage | $156m | 1.5% | Cut |
| Markel GroupTom Gayner | $112m | 0.9% | Added |
| Polaris Capital ManagementBernard Horn | $52m | 4.9% | Cut |
| Gotham Asset ManagementJoel Greenblatt | $41m | <0.1% | Added |
| AKO CapitalNicolai Tangen (founder) | $34m | 0.8% | Cut |
| Weitz Investment ManagementWally Weitz | $4m | 0.3% | |
| Scharf InvestmentsBrian Krawez | $3m | 0.1% | New |
| Horizon KineticsMurray Stahl | $726,516 | <0.1% | |
| Jensen Investment ManagementEric Schoenstein | $669,433 | <0.1% | |
| GAMCO InvestorsMario Gabelli | $366,891 | <0.1% | New |
Largest holders overall
- BlackRock$19.4bn
- Vanguard Capital Management$15.7bn
- State Street$10.6bnAdded
- Capital Research Global Investors$9.0bnAdded
- Invesco$8.0bnAdded
- Vanguard Portfolio Management$6.5bn
- Geode Capital Management$6.2bn
- Price T Rowe Associates$6.1bnAdded
- FMR$4.3bnCut
- Morgan Stanley$3.8bn
From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.
Big holders and activists
1 investor owns more than 5%.
- Vanguard Capital ManagementPassive investor7.5%Since 31 March 2026
- The Vanguard GroupPassive investorSold down below 5%Since 13 March 2026
| Holder | Stake | Since | |
|---|---|---|---|
Vanguard Capital Management Passive investor | 7.5% | 31 March 2026 | |
The Vanguard Group Passive investor | Sold down below 5% | 13 March 2026 |
From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.
What insiders did
In the last 12 months, 2 insiders bought $1m of shares on the open market. 4 sold $13m, $2m of it under preset trading plans.
- Reynolds Paula RosputDirectorBought
- Date
- 18 August 2026
- Shares
- 100
- Price
- $479.12
- Value
- $47,912
- WOOD ROBERT LDirectorSold
- Date
- 15 May 2026
- Shares
- 4,335
- Price
- $506.39
- Value
- $2m
- WOOD ROBERT LDirectorSold
- Date
- 14 May 2026
- Shares
- 880
- Price
- $508.76
- Value
- $447,709
- Durbin SeanEVP, Chief Operating OfficerSold
- Date
- 10 March 2026
- Shares
- 6,520
- Price
- $477.27
- Value
- $3m
- Bichara GuillermoExec VP & Chief Legal OfficerSoldunder a preset trading plan
- Date
- 10 March 2026
- Shares
- 4,357
- Price
- $480.79
- Value
- $2m
- Patwari BinodSenior Vice President - APACSold
- Date
- 24 February 2026
- Shares
- 999
- Price
- $502.77
- Value
- $502,267
- Bichara GuillermoExec VP & Chief Legal OfficerSold
- Date
- 17 February 2026
- Shares
- 9,455
- Price
- $480.45
- Value
- $5m
- Lamba SanjivChief Executive Officer, DirectorBought
- Date
- 8 December 2025
- Shares
- 2,520
- Price
- $396.68
- Value
- $999,634
| Date | Who | Did | Shares | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 August 2026 | Reynolds Paula Rosput Director | Bought | 100 | $479.12 | $47,912 |
| 15 May 2026 | WOOD ROBERT L Director | Sold | 4,335 | $506.39 | $2m |
| 14 May 2026 | WOOD ROBERT L Director | Sold | 880 | $508.76 | $447,709 |
| 10 March 2026 | Durbin Sean EVP, Chief Operating Officer | Sold | 6,520 | $477.27 | $3m |
| 10 March 2026 | Bichara Guillermo Exec VP & Chief Legal Officer | Sold under a preset trading plan | 4,357 | $480.79 | $2m |
| 24 February 2026 | Patwari Binod Senior Vice President - APAC | Sold | 999 | $502.77 | $502,267 |
| 17 February 2026 | Bichara Guillermo Exec VP & Chief Legal Officer | Sold | 9,455 | $480.45 | $5m |
| 8 December 2025 | Lamba Sanjiv Chief Executive Officer, Director | Bought | 2,520 | $396.68 | $999,634 |
From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.
Warning signs in its filings
Problems the company itself reported to the SEC, in its own words.
None of the warning signs we check for were found.
We look for five warning signs: doubt it can keep going, weak checks on its own accounts, a notice that its past accounts can't be relied on, a change of auditor, and one customer bringing in a big share of sales. We don't check lawsuits, investigations or debt yet.
We checked the auditor's report, internal controls, restatement notices, auditor changes and big customers in the 10-K filed 25 Feb 2026, plus the 10-Q filed 31 Jul 2026 and 4 later 8-Ks.
A 10-K is the yearly report every US company files with the SEC. An 8-K is a short notice of a big event.
What could go wrong
- It isn't cheap on profits: 26.2× operating profit.
Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.
The deep dive
Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.
- What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
- Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
- The three things that would make this a mistake
- Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
Your first deep dive is free.
Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.